In a known technique, a profiled element of the general kind defined above, for example a motor vehicle windshield wiper wiping strip, is clad with a lubricating coating, which is obtained by immersing the wiping strip in a solution in which a powder, such as graphite for example, is immersed, or by applying this solution in atomised form to the profiled element.
In this known technique, the lubricant coating is formed by immersing the wiping strip in a solution which consists essentially of an acrylic resin binder in which the graphite powder is dispersed, or by applying the same solution in atomised form on the profiled element. After application of this solution, the wiping strip is dried so as to produce a surface layer which gives the wiping strip properties which considerably improve the quality of the wiping action performed by the windshield wiper in which the strip is later incorporated. Although such a coating does improve wiping quality, it has the disadvantage that it is particularly fragile, and in particular it has a very low resistance to detergents and other cleaning agents which are typically employed in the washing of vehicles. As a result, the lubricant coating has a very short useful life, in that it rapidly deteriorates and even disappears completely, thus quickly reducing wiping performance.